Audax Private Equity and Moelis Capital Partners have completed the sale of Quest Construction Products, the only remaining division of Quest Specialty Chemicals, to Building Materials Corporation of America.
In June 2015, Quest Specialty Chemicals sold the Quest Automotive Products and Quest Industrial Products businesses to Valspar Corporation. With the sale of these two businesses, Quest – and in turn Audax and Moelis – retained ownership of the Quest Construction Products (QCP) business. With the sale of QCP, Audax and Moelis have fully exited their investments in Quest Specialty Chemicals.
QCP manufactures and markets roofing systems, reflective coatings for buildings, and pavement coatings for the construction market. Brand names include Hydro-Stop, United, and StreetBond. During their ownership term, Audax and Moelis completed two add-on acquisitions which tucked in a decorative asphalt coatings business and expanded QCP’s geographic presence into Europe. QCP is headquartered in Charleston, SC (www.quest-cp.com).
“We congratulate CEO Doug Mattscheck and his team on successfully building QCP through two acquisitions, and expanding into new end markets and geographies. We have enjoyed partnering with Doug and Moelis Capital to execute our acquisition strategy,” said Geoffrey Rehnert, Co-CEO of Audax Group.
The Audax Group makes control investments of $10 million to $100 million in middle market companies with transaction values of $25 million to $500 million. Sectors of interest include industrial manufacturing; energy; outsourced industrial services; consumer products; healthcare devices and services; non-asset based logistics; technology; aerospace & defense; business services; and direct marketing. Audax has over $6 billion in assets under management in its private equity, mezzanine, and senior debt businesses. The firm was founded in 1999 and has offices in Boston, New York, and Menlo Park (www.audaxgroup.com).
Moelis Capital Partners is a middle market private equity firm founded in 2007 in connection with the formation of Moelis & Company, an independent investment bank. Moelis Capital Partners manages $870 million of committed private equity capital and specializes in traditional private equity investments in the middle market. The firm is based in New York (www.moeliscapital.com).
“Both Audax and Moelis have been great partners and resources in helping our team transform Quest into three strategic platforms through four acquisitions and investments in accelerating growth,” said Mr. Mattscheck.
Building Materials Corporation of America, the buyer of QCP, is privately held and does business under the name GAF Materials Corporation. The company, headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, is a North American manufacturer and marketer of commercial and residential roofing products (www.gaf.com).
Moelis & Company and Piper Jaffray & Co. advised Quest. Kirkland & Ellis and Fredrikson & Byron served as legal counsel to Quest.
© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 8-26-15
